The photos from Sicily were either sent to my grandfather to the US or were photos he brought with him when he emigrated. The marriage photo was taken in Philadelphia in 1912. Judging from several of the photos I have, one popular style for photos was a postcard style--photo on one side with a postcard arrangement on the other side with space for correspondence, address and stamp. I have a number of photos of this style which were made in various photo studios in Philadelphia.
As I mentioned before, the contact with relatives in Italy has cooled; I had hoped that there would be sufficient interest to locate the other "half" of the conversation in the cache of letters that were translated for me by the fantastic group of translators on this site as well as the possibility of sharing some photos of Gaetano.

I've been waiting for a relative to send me some photos that were loaned to him by my cousin. A package came today with some photos but I also found this letter, which appears to have been written by my grandfather, Ignazio. The letter is written in Italian and is written in 1955. It's written to one of his sister's but I'm not certain it was ever mailed and I have no idea how it came to be included in this packet of photos. While I've learned to translate some Italian, I must defer to the translators on Gente to get a clear understanding of what has been written.

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I also have some note on the back of photos which I will post separately.

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Salemini (?), Jan 18 1955
Dear sister, after a long time I received your beloved letter and I was comforted that you are in good health all together with your family and I want to assure that, thanks God, I and my family are in good health so far.

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my dear sister you want to know why I did not write to you, you know that I am not able to write and there is nobody here who is able to write in Italian. I had to walk 2 kilometers to write this letter, therefore you should not get angry if I don't write. My dear sister, you want to know why I did not tell you of

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the death of my son. He was a soldier when this happened and at that time I did not think about it [= about telling you]. I had 7 children, 4 males and 3 females, now I have 6. Five of them are married and one lives with me and is 16 years old. Dear sister you want to know if your brother in law is dead or alive, I don't know. When I go to Philadelphia I will ask and let you know

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I have nothing else to say. I send you many greetings and also my children greet you and kiss you one after the other. I and my wife greet you one after the other and we give you many kisses from the heart and I am your dear brother who loves you a lot. Ignazio Dagotto

Thanks, Livio. Actually the town is Salem, NJ in the heading of the letter, which is where I was born. This letter seems to confirm what I suspected: my grandfather could not write and probably was not able to read either. The reference about walking 2 kilometers to get the letter written suggests that he dictated the letter to someone else. One of my uncles by marriage was also Sicilian and spoke Italian with my grandfather lived on the same street as my grandparents (all but one of his children did, with most of the families living next to one another, in fact we lived directly across the street from my grandparent's house) so I'm curious about who wrote the letter for my grandfather. There was also a grocery store on the same street which was owned by an Italian family some of whose members were god parents to my aunts and uncles. The misspelling of the surname may or may not indicate that someone other than my grandfather wrote this letter.

It's difficult to get a sense of time from this letter. The dead son to whom he refers died in 1945. I wish more names had been mentioned!

It looks like a joint American-Italian medal with the two flags prominent on the ribbon, but hard to make out what the device is on the front. Just a man (soldier?) kneeling before what 'may' be the Virgin Mary holding a child. Is it bronze Tom? Does it have/say anything on the back?

Yes, Luca, I know that you are writing in Italian so that I can understand you But not so much! I'm still only crawling as far as comprehension goes.

Carole, there is nothing on the back. On the front appears to be an image of the Virgin Mary. There appear to be two other figures but I'll have to get out a magnifying glass to see if I can make out more.

Translation:
There's something that doesn't convince me: it seems that before the zia another word has been cancelled by the stamp or the passing of time. But it follows as you have translated it.

Many kisses to my aunt. Dear uncle I would like to know if you recognise me.

Now it remains to understand to who he refers "knows/recognises": I believe that it refers to the aunt because the question is aimed at the uncle, like: dear uncle I want to know if my aunt remembers me, or maybe: I would like to know if she knows of me, who I am-
But it's of little importance; th remainder of the letter translated by you is certainly more interesting.
(I'm writing in Italian a lot so Tom can understand me

Sorry I've not been around today. Thanks Livio and Luca... youre both wonderful!

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